Welcome to Morgyn's Drag Race!

 I've been away from my blog for quite a while, working on a (stupid) project that has occupied my time. And like all defiantly proud persons, I needed to see through this project to the end...and I also had fun (kinda) working on it. So without further ado, here is the Blogspot premiere of Morgyn's Drag Race: Season One!

 

Having made its official premiere on August 30, 2020; Morgyn's Drag Race was originally just a fun side-project that blew up into a full size in going 'The Sims' mini series.

 Meet the Cast

Morgyn Ember

Hailing from the Magic Realm, hidden deep within Glimmerbrook; Morgyn is a non-binary sim though that does not make him ineligible from being one of the sickest drag queens in Sim Nation (look up the real world history of Drag; trans and NB persons were the pioneers of drag culture).

Morgyn introduces himself as the 'head judge' of the inaugural season of Drag Race, alongside his co-judges; Siobhan Fyres and Izzy Fabulous, truly a stylish and LGBTQIA+ inclusive judging panel. 

Morgyn's critiques of the queens come from the heart and he laces every critique with a compliment, embracing and appreciating said queen's individuality while criticizing their work. Morgyn can be best described as an fair, constructive and sensitive judge, and unlike real world judge/critics such as Rupaul or Simon Cowell; Morgyn actually critiques the queen's runway rather than barking out trendy one-liners or simply discrediting a queen's work because 'he doesn't like it'.

Siobhan & Izzy make up the rest of the judging panel acting as the defacto Michelle Visage and Santino Rice respectively; though it's a little deeper than that. Siobhan Fyres is more like co-judge 'Stacey McKenzie' of Canada's Drag Race or former Drag Race judge 'Merle Ginsberg', often giving constructive criticism while not shying away from criticizing a queen's sloppiness or lack of runway presence. 

Izzy could be compared to ex-Drag Race judge 'Santino Rice', though that comparison falls a little flat when you see that Izzy's personality is less sharp-tongued and 'mean girl'-esque and more blunt and impartial on similar lines as 'Simon Cowell' or 'Piers Morgan'. Izzy openly displays boredom or disinterest within the first few seconds of seeing a queen's runway, and is often chided by Morgyn for being too hasty. 

The Pilot or first episode showed us Eliza Pancakes acting as Morgyn's second-in-command as a literal expy of drag race judge 'Michelle Visage', being very quick to dismiss a queen for being weird or different, criticizing a queen's look for not being 'trendy' or 'mainstream' enough and even going so far as taking offense with an Asian queen's pun-name.  She was fired by the second episode and instead blackmailed placed into a hosting position of 'What's In the Bag?', which is basically a Sims version of 'Whatcha Packin?' It's a humorous after show type of series that revolves around Eliza interviewing eliminated queens, all the while getting several jabs in at Morgyn, the producers, the company and of course shading the guest queen themselves.

The Contestants 

Morgyn's Drag Race was announced on August of this year, which included a special series of 'Meet the Queens' videos focusing on all twelve of the competing queens. This season I am proud to say that it features a diverse range of queens ranging in size, nationality, gender identity and drag/performance style. 

The initial twelve 'meet the queens' videos are still available to watch on my youtube channel, however they will soon be made irrelevant as newer, updated MTQ videos shall take their place - featuring a fluid, solid theme for the promo (which never got an official release oops!) 

So without further ado, let's do further and get to know these twelve quirky queens shall we (in alphabetical order)? (*Note: That characters who are competing drag queens are referred to as 'her/she' and 'he/him' interchangeably via the rule of 'when a queen is in drag they are she, when they are out of drag they are he, there are of course expections). 

Also, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED:

Baga Trash 

Sy Jefferies AKA "Baga Trash" 34, is a well-known drag performer from Windenburg. Now I know what you're probably thinking; "he's an obvious parody of Baga Chipz" well no, not really. While Baga Trash IS a British queen (even if my impression is shite), he was inspired by several different characters and queens including but not limited to 'Tammie Brown' and 'Daphne Moon'. 

Baga aspires to become the world's top trash queen, and applauds 'trashion' as the style of the future. Interestingly enough, Baga Trash has little to no interest in ANY of the features from Eco Lifestyle, odd since dumpster diving is right up her ally.

Caliente 

Nicholas Contreras aka "Caliente", at 24 is one of the youngest competing queens this season right after Terra Ryzen. Caliente prides herself on her youth, beauty and bubbly personality and actively proclaims her "youthful vigor" to be the secret to success. Now what is "youthful vigor" you might ask? Youthful Vigor is the total tetratic composition of youth, attractiveness or beauty, personality and talent. With that mantra in mind, Caliente remains ever cheerful and confident throughout the competition. 

 

    Having originally been brought up on a large farm in Brindleton Bay, Caliente was no stranger to receiving the occasional odd glance from passersby as she gallivanted down main street in her pink designer miniskirts and halter tops, and to be honest she loved the attention more than anyone could know, this of course would boost her confidence into moving out to Newcrest where she would officially compete for the title of 'Morgyn's Magical Queen'.

Crow

Corbin Corvidae AKA "Crow" 30, is an adventurous and experienced queen hailing from Oasis Springs. As many would point out that Crow has glaringly obvious similarities to a certain real life queen and I will be 100% honest, yes Crow is an homage to many former Drag Race queens. Crow's personality I think is what sets her apart and standalone from other queens, both real life and fictitious. The most obvious similarities being Crow's seemingly bitter attitude towards the younger queens (particularly Caliente and Terra Ryzen), which plays into the same trope of "this is a competition" and "blame the edit". When starting Morgyn's Drag Race, we needed an antithesis to who we figured would be the standout protagonists of the season (being either Galaxia, Lapis or Caliente) and Crow fits that bill nicely. 

Crow's moniker stems from her fascination with the color black, darkness, midnight and the very bird itself while the demeanor and overall look of her character is derived from her love of the 1990's film of the same name. Crow's experience and expertise with drag make her a force to be reckoned with, while her demure and sultry demeanor set her apart from the competition. Regardless of how you feel about Miss Crow, no one can deny that she serves some serious looks each time she hits the runway

Extra

Lance Proffitt (pronounced 'Pro-feet') aka "Extra" 29, is a professional "background artist" from Del Sol Valley, and no we're not talking about the actual profession of the same name we're talking about an extra, as in an uncredited background character in a film or series. Basically Extra is really talented at not being the lead character in movies or TV. 

 

Extra's personality is kind of a composition of an egotistical and yet eerily self-aware celebrity. Extra doesn't NEED others to remind him that he's a star, because in his world he is already a star. He mentions in his initial "talking head" during Episode One/Pilot that he had background roles in such serials as; "Touched by an Alien", "Abducted for Real" and "The Great Awful Cook-off". He also noted in his "What's In the Bag" segment with Eliza Pancakes, that he is a musical queen and that his talent for the talent show challenge would have been a live rendition of his hit song; "Boy is a Bear". 

This is a bit of a spoiler so I rupologize in advance, but even Extra's book title for episode six; "Suck More" must be a callback to a certain real world queen, right? Whatever the case, Extra's willing to put int the time so long as you're willing to pay the dime.

Fortuna Cookie

Shūfáng Shāncháhuā ('Shu' for short) aka "Fortuna Cookie" 25, is a young queen from Strangerville who's motto is undoubtedly "here to make it queer", has certainly came to the right show hasn't she? Shu started drag at a shockingly young age; 3, when she dressed up in her mom's clothes and makeup and impersonated 'Miss Piggy' to entertain her family, though they were more red-faced from secondhand-embarrassment than laughter. 

   Cookie is a very artistic and personable queen, having done drag professionally since at least high school and performed at the 8-Bells in Strangerville since her university days at Britechester. She was taken in by her would be drag-mother, 'Mint Cookie' and quickly made friends with newfound family; 'Sugar Cookie', 'Fudge Cookie' and 'Samoa Cookie'. Shu's drag name had always just been 'Fortuna' (for luck) before being adopted by the Haus of Cookie, where she became "Fortuna Cookie". 

Galaxia

Cosmo Nebulon AKA "Galaxia" 28, is quite possibly the most unique queen in this lineup; not only is she the only queen from Sixam, but also the very first 'Alien' contestant in the series history (but surely not to be the last). Galaxia moved to Del Sol Valley shortly before being cast on "Morgyn's Drag Race", because as he puts it the "drag scene on Sixam is boring!" Self-described 'Xenomorph Queen' Galaxia certainly has a lot in common with real life queens such as 'Alaska' and 'Pandora Boxx', though I think Galaxia's uniqueness in both style and personality make him standout from the crowd, that and he's "a fucking alien!" 

For everyone who's seen the initial airing of the pilot will know that Galaxia is here to bring it on a galactic level, having aced the "Trash to Treasure" challenge seemingly flawlessly (though editing does play a part in EVERY reality series) and unanimously impressed the judging panel, even stone-cold bitch Eliza Pancakes. Spoilers ahead for recently dropped Episode 5; Snatch Game saw Galaxia in the bottom for the first time, but little did her competition know that she was no slouch because she TURNED. IT. OUT! Not one, not two, but three reveals during the lipsync - I COULD NOT, BELIEVE IT (and I'm the one who created everything)"! Clearly Galaxia is not playing around and takes the competition VERY seriously, going so far as to plan ahead for a possible lipsync for your life with three reveals to boot, it's curious what else she had planned up her sleeve for the previous runways and if she had similar reveals planned. 

Icy 

Myron Frost AKA "Icy" 27, of Willow Creek came to the competition pulling no punches and dressing to impress from the get-go. Icy began drag during her teen years, and started performing professionally during college. Aside from being the series' first black queen to walk through those doors, Icy also brought her own sense of style and class to the initial competition. Professionalism, style, and class are all words synonymous with Icy; a queen who carries herself as though she has already won (because let's be honest, you NEED a fiery attitude in order to get ahead in these sorts of contests). Though behind the confident and stunning exterior, belies a person who detests drama of any sort, and can be seen at any time an argument erupts - Icy is sure to stay out of the line of sight. 

When I think of Icy, I think of former Drag Race queens who carried a similar air of confidence, professionalism and style such as Chad Michaels and Jaida Essence Hall, though honestly Icy is as much her own identity as anyone else, and the aforementioned queens merely served as inspiration, vocal fry and all. 

Jackqleen Qkwueeen 

Jackson King AKA "Jackqleen Qkwueeen" 37, is Magnolia Promenade's premiere expert in classical theater and the bardic arts. And I'm not going to start this article off with a lie, when I conceptualized Jackqleen I had originally envisioned a different kind of queen entirely which can be seen in her original 'Meet the Queens' video, which if I'm being honest, pretty much all of the queens had different personalities and quirks that differ from their current/later personas. Jackqleen was originally supposed to be a faux Shakespearean expert who would occasionally slip into talking with her rural dialect or twang, which I disliked for a multitude of reasons and decided that making Jackqleen a legitimate, classically trained thespian of Magnolia Promenade, was more interesting. And to make her standout vocally and personality-wise, I just kept picturing Frasier Crane. 

Despite having fallen into the bottom two the first episode, and let's be honest that "Trash to Treasure" challenge was not tailored to make everyone look good, which in Jackqleen's case made her look worse than Velvetta Baggins, whom was described as someone having walked out of a day spa. We can't deny that Jackqleen has a refined and sophisticated outlook to drag, and that being a professional theater actor can only help propel her career as a drag artist. 

Lapis

Bleau Rathbone AKA "Lapis" 31, is one of San Myshuno's most eclectic, eccentric and unique artists. Having performed drag since his nineteenth birthday; Bleau introduced himself in drag to the world of performance art for the first time and then and there 'Lapis' was born (*Note: Lapis prefers to be referred to as 'they/them', but only when in full drag). Lapis' namesake stems from the gemstone itself 'lapis lazuli', the fact that it is mostly blue and their love for the color blue, taking all of these facets into consideration it's not hard to see why Lapis incorporates everything into their drag. 

If you've been watching 'Morgyn's Drag Race' since Episode One, then you're already familiar with just how iconic a queen that Lapis is, having served looks since Episode One with the upcoming Episode 7 and 8 possibly being their strongest serves yet. Lapis believes in and identifies with the individual, priding themselves with being as unique and as standout as possible all while continuing to stay on-brand with the Lapis name (everything blue, black, eclectic and electric). 

Parsley 

Parsley 32, is quite possibly the single-most polarizing figure from 'Morgyn's Drag Race'. Hailing from Evergreen Harbor, Parsley describes herself as being "lean, green and mean" and the "green meanie". The second she steps through the entryway she insults her competition by calling them all "douchebags" (originally calling them "motherfuckers"), and also easily dismisses them as being 'basic', 'boring' and 'not impressive'. With a raspy growly voice that would give Patty & Selma a run for their money. 

Parsley was inundated into the world of drag years back when she lived in San Myshuno and roomed with a popular Drag Queen named 'Darren Leek', who at the time was also her roommate. Darren welcomed Parsley into the Leek family of drag, becoming her drag-mother in the process. Though Parsley stood out from the crowd, having picked a green theme and sticking to it, she polarized a large majority of folks she came into contact with, many finding her to be rude while others found her to be downright terrifying. Parsley's own drag-mother, Darren Leek cut ties with her because of her behavior, and quite possibly out of fear. 

Terra Ryzen 

Scotch Golddig AKA "Terra Ryzen" 22, is another queen hailing from Strangerville and is also the youngest competing queen in the competition to date. Some who have browsed the Sims reddit may remember Scotch making a few appearances pre-drag race as "Florida Man", a member of the infamous "Golddig" clan; a family of reputed 'gold-diggers' who are always looking for their next claim. His grandmother, 'Dusty Bones' made occasional appearances on reddit as a burnt-out version of 'Matilda the Chef'. 

Terra enters the competition as the youngest queen and also the most inexperienced, asking the more experienced queens for help with her makeup and nails shortly after making her entrance. Terra is almost immediately denigrated by her older, more experiences co-competitors as being "busted" and looking a "mess", though despite all that Terra manages to maintain a confidence bordering on cockiness that she will succeed and in fact win the competition, though anyone having seen the first episode will know Terra's ultimate fate. 

Velvetta Baggins

 

Wilberforce Armitage XVII AKA "Velvetta Baggins", is an oldschool queen from Windenburg. She speaks with a High-British or a classically 'posh British' accent, and frequently bemoans about all of the times that the French ave supposedly terrorized her and her comrades while on active duty during the war, which war you ask? She can't remember, though it was likely sometime during the ice age as woolly mammoths and spear-throwing cavemen were involved. The running gag involving Velvetta is that she is old, like really very old. In truth she is probably somewhere around 50-55 years old, however Caliente refers to Velvetta as being "90" in her talking head and Terra Ryzen speculates that she is from the Mesozoic era, basically Velvetta is the oldest queen of the season which makes her target for everyone else. A pianist classically trained in the styles of baroque, Velvetta has entertained audiences for generations and continues to do so using her oldschool style, while fellow Windenburg queen Baga Trash utilizes modern pop culture and of course 'rubbish' to entertain audiences. What's interesting about fellow Windenburg Queens; Velvetta and Baga Trash is that they are both so intrinsically different, despite hailing from the same place. It can be argued that since Velvetta has been performing drag at a time since before Baga Trash, that the two styles will naturally be different. 

I think the truth of the matter is that Velvetta is just another quirky, cooky queen with a bizarre sense of humor and a unique self-styled sense of fashion, not unlike Tammie Brown. The constant callbacks to the wartime tactics and the French are either a clever joke in the guise of obfuscating reality or she actually is senile and is suffering from false memories, either way Velvetta certainly is an interesting queen to have on the stage. 

So now that you've gotten to know our judges, and all twelve contestants on a more personal level, maybe you will remember to set that timer to watch 'Morgyn's Drag Race' this Sunday, at 12:45 PM Pacific Standard Time.

Late to the Game my thoughts on Inquisition, 5 years later.

Late to the Game my thoughts on Inquisition, 5 years later.

First of all I loved characters and the development they got during the game, as always Bioware knocked it out of the park in that department. I was really surprised when Cassandra, Viv and Sera wound up being my MVPs and my most-liked companions, because I had gathered I would disagree with them on a lot of things and that we just wouldn't get along, but as I played on I found many of Cassandra's ideals to be reasonable, I appreciated Sera's non-sequiturs for what they were and gave me a good laugh, Viv was a killing machine.

Now my gripe(s), Bioware really really shouldn't have tacked on that potion cap, or removed healing spells/class with the excuse of "the goal is to not take damage!" well yea ideally that's the goal in EVERY action/RPG game. I feel like the base game was stripped of any challenge and actual tactical thinking, with any and all opposition easily being destroyed by either Vivienne or Cassandra.

I did NOT appreciate how everything in the game seems to be a damage sponge; like I can understand that great bears, dragons and story bosses would be. Jaws of Hakkon was a particularly big offender of this, tuskets and bogfishers having become tanks and the would0be squishy spiders taking an inordinate amount of time to kill (this is with a mixture of Descent + Dragon/Inquisition arms & armor crafted with Tier 3-4 materials, with runes applied). This becomes even MORE apparent when you do Descent and realize that killing several waves of Darkspawn that they are all essentially damage sponges (yes yes I know standard DA DLC mechanics) but there was zero challenge or need of tactical regrouping UNTIL I fought the Guardian, which even then I was still able to laboriously and painfully cheese to death with a solo Sera once I figured out the glitching spot.

Trespasser, awesome story, really great update to what was left over in base game Inquisition, it felt like it was a timed mission because my Inquisitor's hand was blowing up (and I did NOT appreciate the over the top dragging around, lifting into air animations that also damages the Inquisitor & everyone around him for half health) so I felt like I had to hurry along and rush through each area because the hand was getting worse, and of course we're limited on what potions we can bring. Honestly the final fight with Saarath didn't feel as bad as I thought (even though with proper tactics & healing from DAO implemented it would have been better), Cassandra of course tanked him and was untouchable (much like she was during the Gurd Harofsen fight) and all of us managed to stay alive.

From JoH onward I was at level 27, which is the max level for DAI + all DLCs, had decent equips and even respecced a few companions to make them better suited for combat - and a lot of the battles were still a slog...like they didn't feel challenging and we weren't dying left & right (the Guardian killed us several times, Gurd killed us once) it just felt time consuming like they were bosses so of course they were going to absorb damage, but I felt like with the levels we were at and the right combination of equips + abilities would have made short work of them but I was wrong. I had done some googling about this, and it seems there have been threads about this in the past involving the tankiness of all the DAI enemies, like I figured by the time I finally faced Corypheus he'd be dead in minutes, no that too was a slog...though I suspect that was more of story purposes because he and the dragon were taking damage and putting up a solid fight then in a flash cut-scene they died one after the other.

When people are still having issues with these fights even after lowering the difficulty down to casual without any trials, I feel that it's a problem. I'm not advocating for the next DA4 game to be super easy but there should be options, there should be some degree of tactics involved such as choosing to fight Cauthrien the first time in DAO, getting past the Harvester in GoA. DAI was a good game, I feel that it's true potential was bogged down with fake difficulty (removing options & making enemies sponges is not an actual challenge, it's just time consuming) and telling players to "not take damage" is just a lazy attempt at justifying the lack of any real challenge (which I would argue only exist in the Guardian boss, Hakkonites, and maybe the dragon bosses).

The game was rife withe fake difficulty in the form of "damage absorbing" NPCs masquerading as intelligent AI challengers. All in all I enjoyed my time playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, I wish things were more like how they were in Origins or even in DA2 (potions, tactics, etc) I just feel like Bioware really dropped the ball on what was supposed to be a stellar game in the DA lineup.

TES VI and the future of Elder Scrolls; Should we be worried?

Preface: I've been a longtime fan of the The Elder Scrolls series, dating as far back as Daggerfall. Technically Oblivion is the first TES game that I've beaten, Skyrim the second, and Morrowind (I know, I know! - late too the party) was my third. Because of this I feel like I can offer a unique perspective to the whole "Skyrim BAD, Morrowind GOOD!" debate that has been on going for years, and with the various public snafus surrounding Bethesda in the recent years - I thought now would be a good time to take a good look at the Elder Scrolls series as a whole.

                      The Elder Scrolls 1990's: The Beginning

Screenshot from Moby Games

Originally released by Bethesda Softworks in 1994 for MS DOS-based computers, Arena was the first in a series of Action/RPG games that would span a little more than two decades, and would lose more of the latter while developing more of the former game play elements.

Honestly I do not know that much about Arena from a game play perspective other than that it is the predecessor to the still hugely popular or infamous (depending on who you ask) Daggerfall. I know the lore and plot surrounding the game, however aside from that it is more or less like its successor in that it is a medieval role playing game with huge emphasis placed on character & class development, and role or backstory.
Daggerfall would continue this trend two years later in 1996, though its initial launch would be met with much ire from the player base due to a buggy mechanics, bugged quests, and just an overall bugged experience that could actually prevent one from completing the game.

Screenshot from Abandonware

Released in 1996 for MS-DOS computers, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall boasted a massive worldmap supposedly spanning "the size of Great Britain," or approximately 209,331 square kilometers. Built using the XnGine engine, Daggerfall was one of the first fully 3D-rendered games, an impressive feat of its times. However, as mentioned earlier a buggy launch would leave much of the TES fanbase angry at having paid $50 for a game that doesn't work and disgruntled at best.

A patch was released by Bethesda that fixed most of the more serious bugs , and most of the game-breaking bugs that would render the main quest unwinnable. Occasional bugs could still occur and ruin quests and potentially break the game, though a fan patch released by the Daggerfall community would fix most if not all of these.

Daggerfall's detailed character and class creation formed a trend that would continue for the next two Elder Scrolls games, albeit slightly streamlined.

Daggerfall received a huge update recently with the new Unity Project having been completed and ready for download. Unity itself is more or less a remaster of classic Daggerfall, having updated textures, graphics, lighting and sound making the game more appealing to a 2020's gamer.

                    The Elder Scrolls 2000's: The Middle

Screenshot from Mobygames

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind released in 2002 for Windows-based PCs and XBOX consoles, introducing a new generation of Elder Scrolls players to the franchise, while familiarizing returning players to the almost decade old series, though many fans of the Arena/Daggerfall era were unimpressed with Morrowind's "advancements", believing that they somehow "dumbed the series down", and was not nearly as intricate and immersive as its predecessors. So basically the "Morrowind GOOD, Skyrim BAD!" prequel edition.

Morrowind took what Daggerfall was doing and upgraded it to full 3D, rather than just placing lenticular  2D sprites that move as you move. The improvements are vast and many; the weather and environment changes are more realistic such as rain, wind, snow, day and night effects.

Combat was tweaked significantly, whether it is considered an improvement at this time is up for debate. Many returning players already criticized the game for "dumbing" down the franchise, and that Daggerfall's combat while difficult at first was easier to learn, while Morrowind's is pure D&D roll-based, though improvements in certain attributes could remedy this.

Speaking of dumbing of down, the detailed character creation from the days of Arena and Daggerfall returns in Morrowind just not quite as in depth as before. You can answer a series of questions and have a class randomly assigned to you based on your answers, your can choose from a set of premade classes or you can customize your own class. What is missing from this schema were the negative and positive attributes or "pros and cons", such as making your character phobic of spiders or undead but being resistant to magic.

NPC interactions of course return in Morrowind, along with a long list of premade topics such as "Solstheim", "Dark Elves", and "Tribunal Temple" pretty like how it was back in Daggerfall. Disposition works in Morrowind more or less like it did in Daggerfall, certain guilds, races, and classes will have an impact regarding certain NPC relations. You could bribe people with gold, which is the fastest and easiest way to get their disposition up.

Morrowind is also a first for Elder Scrolls to introduce "DLC" to the series with the Tribunal and Bloodmoon Expansions, that expanded the world of Morrowind and prolonged the adventures of the Nerevarine. 

One feature that was used prominently was fast-traveling, Morrowind replaced the map-based fast-travel system with a series of different traveling mechanics ranging from local Silt Striders, to Mark & Recall spells. With overall improved graphics, Jeremy Soule as composer and an ironclad plot it's easy to see why Morrowind is considered to be one of, if not the best Elder Scrolls games in the franchise and is more or less universally beloved.

Screenshot from Steam/Mobygames

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, released in March 2006 on PC and Sony & Xbox consoles brought players a return to a fully 3D Elder Scrolls world. Like its predecessor Morrowind, Oblivion boasted a large fleshed out world, with improved graphics such as lighting, fire/water effects, day & night, etc. Improved sound and an impressive soundtrack with the returning Jeremy Soule, and a combat system that is an actual agreed upon improvement.

Oblivion might be known more now for it's less than stellar character generations (Oblivion Character Overhaul for PC!), that acts more or less as a meme template (ala "NPC dialogue") but its contributions to the Elder Scrolls series and its place as its own unique fantasy RPG experience should not be overlooked.

Oblivion brought about a return of horses, which were absent in the horse-less alien world of Vvardenfell (TES III: Morrowind). Oblivion also made its own tweaks to the ever changing character creation system, though most additions introduced in Morrowind were left unchanged such as the ability to choose a birth sign, which was absent in both Arena & Daggerfall and is replaced by the Standing Stones in Skyrim for some reason.

One of things many players loved about Oblivion was its rustic User Interface, which was a huge improvement from Morrowind's bland straight black screen with gold-yellow borders. Each time you interacted with the menu, it really felt like your were reading through your journal and only added to players' immersion.
Fast Travel also returned in Oblivion via it's paper-looking world map (which could be made more beautiful looking using mods on PC). And the devs were even nice enough to allow you to immediately fast travel to any of the major cities from the start. One could argue that the decision to make these immediately visible by default as laziness on the devs part, however the argument could be made that the devs were appeasing the fans who wanted traditional fast travel back.

Oblivion is by no means a perfect game, it suffers from the same streamlining as its predecessor in Morrowind and even levitation was removed because of some bizarre meta reasons (though handwaved as being "officially banned" in Cyrodiil, though doesn't explain why its still absent in Skyrim).

The traditional dialogue system from Morrowind returns, though more streamlined and tweaked to fit the "here and now" relevancy of the topics of the game (such as "Prophet", "Grey Fox", "Emperor's Assassination"). Lots of lore topics that were present in Morrowind were removed, likely because Oblivion being a fully voiced game, would require more time and of course more money to individually record each line of dialogue and Oblivion's dialogue was already clunky to begin with:

Like its predecessor, Oblivion also came packed with DLC in the form of microtransactions such as the infamous "Horse Armor", "Spell Tomes", and various player homes for your character depending on your moral or faction alignment. It also introduced us to the Shivering Isles, Sheogorath's daedric plane of oblivion and arguably one of the best Elder Scrolls DLCs.

Horse Armor only $5.99!

Traversing the wilderness of Cyrodiil, with the sunlight gleaming off your Imperial Dragon Armor, the beautiful fields of wheat dancing in the breeze while "Through the Valleys" plays accompanying...all of these things coupled makes questing in TES IV: Oblivion a remarkable experience (ok I am a bit biased), and it truly makes Oblivion a standout game.

               The Elder Scrolls 2010's: Now and Beyond

Screenshot from Mobygames

Released on November 11, 2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the latest and current mainline iteration of the Elder Scrolls franchise.

Ah Skyrim, where do I begin? Many believe that Skyrim is the worst of the series, the most obvious offender being the removal of the traditional class and birth sign system from the previous Elder Scrolls games. The once heavily detailed character customization system from Daggerfall was streamlined to a very basic perk tree, no more agonizing over which attributes to place where, no the game will do that for you and all you need to worry about is pressing Y to choose whether you want to increase health, magicka or stamina and then allocate 1 perk point.

The NPC dialogue system from the past two games is missing, and in its place is a very basic interaction menu of asking about topics relevant to specific NPCs (such as Lucan Valerius's Gold Claw) or asking Arngeir about Paarthurnax and the Greybeards over and over.

Levitation is once again missing, what's more the entire Mysticism branch has been abolished for reasons beyond me (presumably something to do with mountains or engine limitations)

Horses returning with mounted combat was a nice bonus (added in Update 1.6), something I wish had been in Oblivion and makes the game play more fun and intuitive and makes Skyrim stand out a bit more from the rest.

Combat like from Oblivion is a big improvement (save for the psychic ninja dodging all enemies seem to possess), which is one of the things universally agreed upon. The addition of a sprint button was a godsend, and very helpful when outrunning annoying enemies (I'm looking at you wolves), as well as implementing it for horses.

Graphics of course are a big improvement from the previous Elder Scrolls games, though I dare say that Oblivion's graphics were nicer or "prettier" to look at, and Skyrim while breathtaking at times, is usually bleak and gray most of the time (though with more information regarding ESO: Greymoor having come out, the bleak look is undoubtedly intentional).

The physics engine is still bugged much like it was in Oblivion, where you can enter a previously unentered room or building and see plates, cups, cutlery, and food go flying across the room as if a bomb went off.

There are of course recurring bugs, I don't mean the same bugs carried over from Oblivion, but similar quest bugs that can occur on any new game or character. One example being discovering Leifnarr's corpse in Broken Helm Hollow, and being unable to initiate the miscellaneous quest from his wife at Heartwood Mill to find him or discovering any of the stolen/missing Bard's College Instruments (such as "Finn's Lute" from Stony Creek Cave) before joining and talking to said professors, and being unable to return them and having instruments forever stuck in your inventory. This particularly problematic for players as exploration is one of the main attractions of Elder Scrolls games, and bugs like these have most likely made explorers less adventurous for fear of bugging a uninitiated quest.


Skyrim reintroduced DLC like its predecessors, though unlike Oblivion - having had released an onslaught of microtransactions, Skyrim released a humble 3 whole DLC, seemingly having learned from the last time.

But wait there's more! In 2016 Skyrim was re-released for PC and XBOX One & Playstation 4 consoles, WITH the inclusion of community-created mods hosted via Bethesda's lackluster server, of course with the caveat of paid mods via the much ridiculed "Creation Club".

Like Oblivion, Skyrim itself has become a meme at this point, the ever-present joke being "I can't wait for Skyrim 2 or Skyrim Ultimate Very Special Platinum Edition!" or Skyrim for Toaster Ovens! Really this is the fandom coming together and making fun of the many Skyrim re-releases, though honestly if all collected releases are accounted for there are only 4 standout re-releases; The Original Skyrim, The Legendary Edition, The Special Edition and Skyrim VR (if the latter even counts). Mostly it's just longtime and new players impatiently grumbling for a new TES game, specifically The Elder Scrolls VI.

                                         And...Onward

Official Bethesda teaser

There is a kind of funny gate-keeping phenomenon that occurs on some Elder Scrolls topics. Players that are new to the series (possibly having started with Skyrim) seek out advice or ask questions regarding the next Elder Scrolls game. These topics usually either derail into meme threads or longtime TES fans downvoting and telling the OP that "literally NOTHING is known about the next game, so speculation is pointless!" essentially shutting down a topic that people don't want others to actively engage in for some reason.
This practice is known as gate-keeping, and the fans who are actively doing this to others among the community are part of the problem. These fans if they can even be considered that, are what I imagine to be Bethesda & Zenimax's ideal customer; they will buy whatever Bethesda puts out no questions asked, and when others in the community have an issue with the game it is their problem, not the developers.

Bethesda's track record as of late has left something to be desired. A botched Fallout 76 launch scandalized the Fallout community, largely those who had purchased the Collector's edition and expecting everything that was pictured in the description; an actual canvas bag (the bags were not shipped at launch and were not even made of canvas), among other grievances all of which were waived with an offer of five whole dollars in-game currency. Then there's Fallout 1st which is a whole other can of worms...

So where am I going with all of this? The question that has been framed in the title of this very article, but has yet to be asked? Should we be worried? Well...kind of, yes. Granted Bethesda hasn't been doing so well in regards to customer service lately, but they haven't released any complete garbage games (I'll withhold comment on Blades & 76 because I haven't played them - and the main controversy has been lootboxes and the Fallout 1st/launch debacle).

It's been almost twenty years since Morrowind's release, I think it's safe to assume that some things will be changed/removed to fit Bethesda's vision of an ideal modern game. The UI will most likely be changed again (hopefully to something less black and bland), the attribute/leveling system will be changed (hopefully to a more traditional one, though not likely if judging by Fallout 4's level/perk system).

My main concern with how Bethesda is handling these games is the massive amount of streamlining which has been done in less than twenty years. In between Daggerfall and Fallout 4, the character attribute/level system has been so watered down that the game does all of the hard attribute allocating FOR you, and you merely need to press a button to allocate a perk. That's it. People complained when Skyrim added quest markers to the game, believing that it held your hand too much and removed any modicum of challenge from the game. Oblivion had quest markers in a sense, but in the form of revealing an unvisitable location on your map, which you would have to travel to on your own.

What's next for the Elder Scrolls? Perhaps TES VI will have an "auto fight" feature, or a TL;DR feature for impatient gamers who simply don't have time to sift through all of that pesky dialogue. Maybe the game will come with an auto play feature, wherein the game will play itself for you, so now you no longer have to worry about going on those long tedious expeditions in abandoned mines or caverns and can avoid that boring main quest altogether. Do I sound like I'm being sarcastic? Am I being sarcastic, who knows?!

Fetch quests will undoubtedly make a return, they're ever present in almost every modern Role Playing Game out there and they're not going away. The magic system can't get any worse unless Bethesda decides to remove Illusion and/or Alteration or streamline all of them into one magical item like what Lionhead did with Fable III.

Creation Club will most certainly be a thing in TES VI, in fact it just might be the ONLY thing. Bethesda's found a way to monetize mods (albeit unpopular), and their obvious lack of support/interest in maintaining the Skyrim Special Edition & Fallout 4 mod severs show that they really only want people using their own paid mods. A prime example being is whenever the mods section of Skyrim/Fallout 4 is downed, it will take ages for Bethesda Support to rectify it. Conversely, whenever the Creation Club, ESO, Blades, Legends or Fallout 76 severs go down - Bethesda Support has them fixed almost within the hour, and definitely within the same day.

Mods had been down for several days at this point

Honestly, the amount of streamlining that Bethesda can do to this game is limitless and we probably shouldn't worry too much about the streamlining of features UNTIL we see more of the game proper, such as game play videos with a focus on NPC interactions, user interface, and leveling up. At that point we can vote with our wallets and choose not to buy into Bethesda's narcissistic bullshit anymore. For now, we should speculate about the land wherein TES VI will take place, the inhabitants, the plot, the factions, and the potential of mods (which always makes what Bethesda does actually work). Basically I'm urging people to be cautiously optimistic, don't set your heart on anything and definitely DON'T pre-order.

The casualization of a franchise; my concern for The Elder Scrolls VI

Let me preface this by saying that I know this topic has been done to death, and that not everyone shares my opinion (which is fine, disagreements make the world go-round) but I wanted to get my 2 cents in while we're in a friendly subreddit where we don't have to worry about a gatekeeping hivemind trying to shut us down.

I realize that every game that Bethesda (and by extension every game developer) releases, is in experiment. Skyrim was an experiment that proved to be hugely successful, dare I say it is the most successful Elder Scrolls game in history.

Now Skyrim is a good game, it introduced to us some new elements, rehashed older ones, and was an all-round fun experience. With mods you could even transform it into a completely different game. Now with that being said, is it a good 'Elder Scrolls game'? In my opinion, and in may others' opinions, no. Skyrim as an experiment was catering to the casual playerbase (at the time COD, Candy Crush, etc) - basically people who were not seriously vested in video games, only played them once, played mobile games when were bored at work, etc.

But Skyrim the experiment proved to be so successful and so addictive that it's hard to draw a line between saying "this is a game for the casual gamer" and "this is a good RPG", the thing is that Skyrim seems to be both, at least in regards to its approach-ability in that players from every known franchise have played Skyrim at least once, and the console players who missed out on the opportunity to play with mods jumped at the chance to try it for the first time on XBOX, Bethesda knows this, they have the receipts to prove it.

So basically we went from Arena/Daggerfall - very oldschool, Bard's Tale-esque 1990's D&D player's dream to Morrowind (which at the time was divisive among Daggerfall fans) to Oblivion - a mix if I may say, between Morrowind and Fable (and imo the game with most balance between good RPG & gameplay elements that cater to everyone) to now Skyrim; a legendary beast of mythic proportions so ridiculously streamlined, yet so ridiculously successful.

Like I said, Skyrim IS a good and fun game, it has its flaws as all ES games do - but it is still a VERY different animal compared to the past TES games. Now I expect people to chime in with "but every ES game has been different from the other!" and you're right! Oblivion had (in many an opinion) improved combat and map system, Morrowind had an all-around better guild and quest system than Daggerfall, and Daggerfall...(I'm not sure how different Daggerfall was from Arena so we're skipping them). Now you may be wondering why I'm so worried for TES VI, I'm not worried that it'll be a bad GAME, because as others have said TES is Bethesda's baby, its cash-cow they won't mess it up or seriously go too far with it unlike Fallout. I am however worried that it won't be a good ELDER SCROLLS game, the difference being that it retains the feel and options and experiences of past TES games (those options seemingly minimizing by Oblivion and completely vanishing by Skyrim).

I'm not talking about Todd Howard Molyneuxing about skyrim having "1000 endings" Things like leveling up, journal/record keeping, questing, etc. were all heavily (for lack of a better word) "dumbed down" by 2006, and were streamlined into 1-click after thoughts by 2011. In Daggerfall, people could spend up to an hour or more customizing their class, which you know - determined their play style and how the flow of the game would go more or less. In Morrowind people would spend hours on quests, irritated sure, but many would come to be appreciative of the experience (myself included, I hated the no fast-travel at the time but grew used to Vvardenfell's way of life, being a Roman in Rome as they say). Oblivion - again I reiterate the idea that Oblivion brought gameplay equality to the Elder Scrolls; perks, leveling, journal, questing, etc. were all more or less taken directly from Morrowind and just revamped a bit - everything else of course could have used some TLC.

And again Skyrim, a controversial cash cow of a game, and Bethesda's pride and joy (I say Skyrim is Beth's pride & joy because it has outsold every other TES game in the catalogue), so insanely popular that many gamers asked when a "Skyrim 2" would be released (either casual gamers who don't understand how sequels in the TES franchise works or are just inferring TES VI).
Skyrim is divisive among TES fans, mainly between Skyrim and Morrowind fans for many reasons. I'm not worried that TES VI will become a Skyrim 2.0, I know it won't because the devs will be catering to the current loudest majority of gamers (twitter, facebook games, gacha players, casual gamers who play one time and quit) but will season the game with enough nostalgia and lore to hopefully lure old school fans and the 1% of TES gamers who started with Oblivion or who are neutral on the franchise's current standing.

What is my worry then? My worry is that with Bethesda obviously catering to the twitter, instagram, etc. crowd, they will be once again streamlining options and features to make the game more appealing to said demographic. I'm going to be brutally honest, the majority of people who live on the twitter app - are always on the go, and don't have time to sit down and emotionally and intellectually invest themselves into a video game, it is just not their modus operandi. These casual gamers will play the game once to completion, post a review of it either being "1/5 = a dumpster fire or 5/5 = amazing best game ever made!" Are some of these people hard core Elder Scrolls fans? Of course, I bet lots of people who follow Bethesda on Twitter and tweet/retweet Oblivion memes are old school fans of the franchise, the issue is that the vocal majority is screaming "less is more, so let's take out more stuff!" (i.e. the completely watered down perk/leveling system in Fallout 4).
Maybe that's just the sign of the times, that things change and people either adapt or drop it, but I really fear that the TES VI game that Bethesda delivers to us will be extremely shallow. The "games as a service" model and the constant attempts at monetizing mods, and streamlining/watering down content (press 'A' to level up, follow the pointer to get the magic lamp) is going to create a less old school fan friendly and more general/casual one-time player friendly.

I think TES games can and do appeal to everybody to an extent, I don't necessarily believe that you NEED to remove longstanding traditions and gameplay elements in order to be inclusive to everybody. I still feel that regardless it WILL be a great game, just that whether it's a great Elder Scrolls game greatly depends on Bethesda, and whether or not they decide to leave in or take more features out.

Basically, long story short, tl;dr - I fear this game is going to be as or more watered down than Skyrim, but will still be a good game nonetheless but not necessarily a good TES game.